Wire brush.



N9. 729,528. 'PATENTED JUNE 2, 1903..

' v W. 0. BEMBNT.

WIRE BRUSH. APPLIOATION FILED we. so. 1901.

- no MODEL.

-rza z UNITED STATES PATENT Patented June 2, 1903.

OFFICE.v

\VILLIAM O. BEMENT, OF WORCESTER, MASSACHUSETTS, ASSIGNOR TO WIRE GOODS COMPANY, OF WORCESTER, MASSACHUSETTS, A COR- PORATION OF MASSACHUSETTS.

WIRE BRUSH.

SPECIFICATION forming part of Letters Patent No. 729,528, dated June 2, 1903. Application filed August 30,1901. Serial No. 73.885. (to model.)

To all whom it may concern:

Be it known that 1, WILLIAM O. BEMENT, a citizen of the United States, residing at. Worcester, in the county of Worcester and Commonwealth of Massachusetts, have iri vented a new and useful Improvement in Wire'Brushes, of which the following is a specification, accompanied by drawings form-1 ing a part of the same, in which Figure 1 represents a side elevation. of a completed brush embodying myimprovement' with a portion of the handle shown in sectional view. portion of the handle. Fig. 3 is an end View of the handle on a larger scale. Fig. 4: represents aportion of one of the tufts of wire bristles. 7

Similar reference-letters refer to similar parts in the difierent' views.

My invention relates to that class of fiat brushes composed of wire bristles attached to a handle and adapted for killing insects, such brushes being commonly known as flyf killers. The wire bristles are attached to the end of the handle and are arranged in a series of tufts laced .together midway their length for the purpose of maintaining the tufts in the same plane to form a broomshaped brush with intervening spaces between the tufts for the passage of air when the brush is used for striking insects. In using the brush a quick blow is given which imparts a violent strain upon the tufts of bristles, causing the interwoven lacing by which the tufts are connected to gradually move along the divergent tufts toward the handle or narrower part of the brush, and it also tends to wrench the bristles from the handle.

It is the purpose of my present invention to provide means for preventing the movement of the lacing-cord and also to increase the strength of the connection between the bristles and the handle, and I accomplish these results by means-of the construction" and arrangement of parts, as hereinafter described, and shown in the accompanying drawings, the novel parts being pointed out in the annexed claims.

The handle A, of wood or other suitable Fig. 2 is a side elevation of .material, is preferably reduced in size at one end, forming a shoulder A, and the reduced end A of the handle is provided on diametrically opposite sides with longitudinal grooves BB, separated by a web 0. The reduced fend of the handle is also provided with a hole D, formed in the plane of the grooves '13 B and adjacent to the shoulder A. The

tufts -E of wire bristles are inserted through the hole D of the handle and are then bent 1 around and parallel with the web C, as shown at FF, Fig. 1, and filling the longitudinal grooves B B. The reduced section A of the handle is then wound with a binding-wire G iu-the usual manner in brushes of this class,

thereby firmly compressing the parallel strands of wire F F around the central web C and crowding them into the grooves B B. The tufts of the wire when firmly attached to the handle, as above described, are separated to form a broom-shaped brush and are held by means of a lacing cord or wire interwoven with the tufts of wire bristles in order to separate them and provide air-passages between them,so that when the brush is forced through the air in the operation of striking the air will be allowed to pass freely through the brush instead of being forced in a strong current against the insect by the movement of the brush. It has been customary heretofore to attach the tufts of wire bristles to the end of the handle by forming a diamet- 'rical slot through the end of the handle,

' the bent wires from turning on the retainingpin except the binding-wire, which is liable I handle the tufts of wires are clamped against the central web by means of the bindingwire G, and to accomplish this result the longitudinal grooves B B are made of the proper size to be cotnpletely filled by the tufts of wires when they are com pressed therein by the binding-wire G. The central web 0 not only forms a firm longitudinal support against which the parallel sections of the wires are compressed, but it also serves to strengthen the sides H H of the reduced portion of the handle.

The separated tufts of wires are maintained in their proper position by means of a lacing cord or wire I interwoven between the separated tufts of wire at a suitable distance between the end of the handle and the ends of the tufts. As the brush is used the lacingcord has a tendency to slip over the smooth surface of the wires or toward the handle A. In order to prevent this slipping of the lacing-cord, the wires forming the two tufts on opposite sides of the brush have heretofore been bent or notched to receive the lacingcord and hold it frotn slipping on the wires. This method of retaining the lacing-cord requires that the cord be applied to the brush in the plane of the notched wires, and the application of the cord to the notches sometimes proves inefiective, for the reason that a side pressure upon the wires which would reduce the width of the brush tends to release the lacing-cord from the notches. In order to hold the lacing-cord in proper position on the brush, I form a series of kinks or sharp bends J in the wires forming several of the tufts, the wires being bent in a plane at right angles with the plane of the brush, so as to form lateral projections between the lacing-cord and the end of the handle, and thereby impede the movement of the lacing-cord from the wires toward the smaller end of the brush. This method allows the lacing-cord to be applied to the brush at any convenient point just'beyond the kinks J, and as the brush is used and the lacing-cord works along the wires toward the handle it eventually is brought into contact with the kinks J and held from further movement, it having been found in practice that the movement of the lacing-cord caused by the use of the brush is toward the smaller end of the brush or toward the end of the handle.

What I claim as my invention, and desire to secure by Letters Patent, is

1. A wire brush of the class described comprising a handle and ln'ush-wires, said handle having parallel grooves in one end and a separating web with a transverse hole with the brush-wires inserted in said hole and said grooves, and means for compressing said wires against said web, substantially as described.

2. In a wire brush, the combination of a handle having parallel longitudinal grooves at one end on diametrically opposite sides of the handle, a transverse hole through said handle at the end of said grooves, a web between said grooves extending from said hole toward the end of the handle, wires inserted through said hole and bent against the opposite sides of said web and filling said grooves, and a winding cord, or wire, by which said wires are com pressed in said grooves, substantially as described.

3. In a wire brush, a series of divergent tufts of Wire forming a broom-shaped brush, said wires having kinks, or bends, in a plane at right angles to the plane of the brush and a lacing-cord interwoven with said tufts of wire on the side of said kinks opposite the handle and outside of the kinks, substantially as described.

Dated this 24tth day of August, 1901.

WILLIAM O. BEMENT.

Witnesses:

M. 0. PRICE, GENEVIEVE E. CLARK. 

